Today, Apple is rolling out the new Emergency SOS today in the US and Canada for the latest iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro. The new feature was announced back in September during the original announcement of the new phones and uses satellites to provide an extra line for contacting emergency services or providing a location using Find My.
‘Emergency SOS via Satellite’ is available to use on the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro and requires iOS 16.1 or later. For the time being, it is only available in the US and Canada and will be free for the first two years, for new customers of the iPhone 14 models. In the future, Apple might charge for the satellite service.
Apple says that in order to use the new feature, the iPhone needs to have a clear line of sight to the sky and can use satellites for emergency communication. Phone calls won’t be going though, although messages to nearby emergency services in order to speed up communications.
Apple is also allowing the Find My service to be used over satellites, for when WiFi or cellular are not available. Users can choose to share location over satellite communicaton, useful for when hiking and camping in remote locations.
